A punctuation question tests how you join sentence parts with linking words. Split at the blank and check whether each part can stand alone. Two full sentences can use a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a joining word; a colon introduces details that explain or expand on the first sentence. A transition can't join sentences on its own, and a transition needs a comma when it starts a sentence. Wrong choices may leave out punctuation that the linking word needs.
Hints
- Hint 1
Read the words on both sides of the blank. Find who or what each part is about and what it does or is.
- Hint 2
Check the punctuation each linking word needs. How does the helmet warning relate to the point about convenience, and what punctuation would show that link?
Step-by-step
Split and test the join
Step 1Find the full sentences
Split after campus, which every choice adds, and test each side as a possible sentence. Electric scooters offer has a subject, who or what the sentence is about, and a main verb, which says what that subject does or is. Can the second part stand alone too? riders should always wear helmets has its own subject and verb, so both sides are full sentences.
- Step 2
Check what the linking words need
What can go between these full sentences? They need punctuation that joins them: a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a joining word such as and. A colon can introduce details that explain or expand on the first sentence. However is a transition, a word showing how ideas relate, not a joining word. A period or semicolon can go before it, and it needs a comma after it when it starts the next sentence.
- Step 3
Add the needed comma
But fits the move from a convenient way to travel to a safety warning. To join these sentences, the comma must come before but, so campus but leaves out the needed comma. The version campus, but has both the comma and the joining word. Choice C.